The value of paid content in business journalism

Brian Kaberline, the editor of the Kansas City Business Journal, writes about the value of its content and why more will be behind a paywall in 2017.

Kaberline writes, “The past few months, we’ve worked to stop characterizing stories and features as either print or online. Now, we have nonpremium content, which is available to all, and premium content, which is accessible only to paid subscribers. This change means we’re saving important, exclusive information for paid subscribers, and letting you decide whether you want to read it from a printed page, your office computer or smartphone.

“It’s not an insignificant value. Through the first 10 months of 2016, our newsroom published roughly 4,700 items. Of those, about 1,200 were premium stories.

“This year, we’ll increase the number of premium stories we publish each day. It will cost us some page views — and may occasionally frustrate people who read stories online or through the email newsletters but don’t have paid subscriptions.

“But the reasoning is clear: We work for our subscribers. The Business Journal has remained strong because we have a distinct audience and continually push to provide value to that audience by delivering news, helping advertisers to reach local decision-makers and connecting people through various events.”

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.